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On the Trail Of Jan Hus

By DAVID BINDER

Published: November 16, 1997

UKALICHA, which means ''At the Sign of the Chalice,'' is a venerable tavern in the middle of Prague at Na Bojisti (On the Battlefield Street). Not by accident it was the beer hall of choice for the Good Soldier Schweik, the subversive Czech hero of the comic novel of Jaroslav Hasek. In this subtle way the author paid tribute to a symbol of Czechdom. The chalice acquired this status four centuries earlier through followers of Jan Hus, the revolutionary preacher and patriot who was burned at the stake as a heretic at the outset of the Council of Constance in 1415. To this day the ceremonial cup retains an almost mystical gravity for the Czechs.

Under a 12th-century ruling, only priests could partake of wine representing the blood of Christ from a chalice during Communion. Hus, among other rebel spirits, called being denied a part of Communion an affront to the faithful. That became one of the issues on which he split with the hierarchy, although he considered himself a faithful Catholic to the end. After his horrifying death at age 45, thousands of his disciples, called Hussites, sewed chalice designs on their banners and waged war across the center of Europe for nearly 15 years. The church banned the chalice itself.

Many are the ways to focus a visit to the Bohemian lands -- music, architecture, castles, beer and much more -- although it is difficult to avoid any one while concentrating on another. Our focus for a week was to explore the central and southern portions of the Czech Republic in terms of the life and times of Jan Hus, whose dauntless challenge to the corrupt papal hierarchy foreshadowed the Protestant Reformation and helped define the Czechs as a nation. He was inspired by the reformist writings of John Wycliffe in England. Later he translated a portion of the Bible and made significant contributions to Slavic orthography. Despite the church's efforts to eradicate vestiges of his works -- he is little known outside Central Europe -- we were amply rewarded.

My first encounter with Hus's heritage had come in 1968, during the Prague Spring, when proponents of ''socialism with a human face'' adopted him as an inspirational forebear in the struggle against their Soviet overlords, and I was thirsty for more. My wife, Helga, and I began our week in Prague. From our spacious and comfortable bed-and-breakfast in Sporilov, a southern borough of the city, we rode the excellent subway 15 minutes downtown for our daily walks. The only hindrance was the huge throng of other tourists swarming the sidewalks and squares, even in late October.

The Bohemian capital, so placid now, was a vortex for violence at the beginning of the 15th century -- fratricidal wars, beheadings, peasant rebellions, pestilence. Cosmopolitan and bigger than Rome, Prague was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, viewed as a prize by three rival kings. At the height of Hus's career there were also three competing popes. One matter that monarchs and popes agreed upon: Hus's purported heresy threatened the foundations of their power. Hence his condemnation.

Hus's legacy is most vividly displayed in the Bethlehem Chapel, the disarmingly simple house of worship where he began preaching at age 32 a decade after it was built. Of Prague's 20 churches, Bethlehem, erected by a German patrician, was the only one where sermons and hymns were in Czech. Here he found his true calling. In the chapel, which held more than 3,000 and was usually packed when he spoke, Hus inveighed against venal practices of the Catholic church in a time when virtually everything was for sale -- sacraments, bell-ringing and, worst of all in his view, indulgences absolving sins. One of his parishioners was Queen Sophie, and he became her confessor.

Later the building, with its two gabled roofs at 4 Betlemske Namesti, was turned over to Jesuits, who removed traces of the Hus era, and then tore it down to make way for an apartment house. On the basis of Hussite texts and recovery of a Gothic portal, a fountain and some windows, it was lovingly reconstructed in the 1950's under Communist rule. On the walls are frescoes, extracts of Hus sermons and musical notes replicating the originals. For a small fee, visitors may visit the upstairs museum where multilingual signs explain Hus memorabilia, including one of his handwritten texts on parchment. From his cell in Constance during nearly eight months of incarceration he inquired again and again about his cherished chapel in Prague and it even figured in one of his last dreams, he confided to friends.

From the Bethlehem Chapel it is a 10-minute walk to Charles University (Carolinum), where Hus was first Magister and then Rector. A large Gothic bay window is all that is left of the original university building that stood at 9 Zelezna. From the university we walked across the Vltava River to the looming Prague Castle. Just in front of the grand entrance is the Archbishop's Palace (6 Hradcanske Namesti), a stately structure rebuilt after a huge fire in 1541, where in 1410 Bishop Zbynek burned 200 volumes of ''heretical'' writings, including works of Hus, in the courtyard, and then banned him from the city.